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CalMatters

Anti-worker or pro-worker? Why labor unions are fighting over a housing bill

Here’s something the unions all agree on: The labor workforce needs to grow to meet construction demands, and is struggling to do so. Pay and health coverage among the mostly non-union workforce is often so poor that nearly half of construction workers rely on the state’s five largest public safety net programs, according to a recent UC Berkeley Labor Center study.

CalMatters

This proposal could solve health insurance problem for part-time community college faculty

If the state pours more money into part-time faculty health plans, “unions and the districts may negotiate to improve the benefits currently offered,” said Laurel Lucia. Colleges that already offer health plans to part-time faculty “might reduce the premium amount that the worker is required to pay or they might reduce the amount that people have to pay out of pocket to access care.”

CalMatters

What’s the role of unions in the 21st century?

Unionized workers in California earn on average 12.9% more than similar non-union workers, according to research from UC Berkeley Labor Center. They are also more likely to receive employer-sponsored health benefits and a retirement plan.

CalMatters

COVID vaccinations lag for people on Medi-Cal

“Low-income workers face significant practical challenges. They often have limited time because of multiple jobs, they may lack childcare, spend a lot of time commuting. And they’re worried about missing work, not just for the appointment but also if they have symptoms from the vaccine,” Lucia said.

CalMatters

Will California investment in new job training programs pay off?

“The folks who are justifiably critical of the conventional approach say it’s about train and pray — train a bunch of people in skills that you think they might want and pray that they might get hired,” said Carol Zabin, co-author of research for the UC Berkeley Labor Center that backed High Road.

CalMatters

What’s at stake for California if Obamacare is overturned, explained

“The ACA covered millions of people and reduced the racial and ethnic disparities in health coverage in California,” researchers at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research wrote in a recent publication. “(T)o take away these coverage options especially during a global pandemic and recession would exacerbate racial and ethnic inequality in California.”

CalMatters

What to know about gig worker pay before voting on Prop. 22

“This is an extremely dangerous precedent,” said Ken Jacobs, chair of the Labor Center at UC Berkeley. “They just acted like the law doesn’t apply to them and assumed they could bring in enough money, gain enough political power, to bend the law to their will.”

CalMatters

California’s lack of protective gear cost lives, study finds

Nearly 21,000 essential workers wouldn’t have contracted COVID-19 and dozens likely wouldn’t have died if California had an adequate stockpile of personal protective equipment at the outset of the pandemic, according to a Wednesday report from UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and Labor Center.

CalMatters

Labor vs. Uber, Lyft on Nov. ballot

If the drivers had been classified as employees, Uber and Lyft would have paid $413 million into California’s unemployment fund between 2014 and 2019, a recent report from UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found. That’s about the same amount of money as California borrowed from the federal government in April to pay a staggering number of unemployment claims.